China goes to space

[RedRalph]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/30/china-manned-moon-mission-lunar

Nearly 40 years after the cold grey soil of the moon was last disturbed by bounding humans, the lunar surface has become an official destination once more.

Tentative plans to land a man on the moon have been outlined in a document published by the Chinese government that confirms the nation's intention to become a major spacefaring nation. Officials in China have spoken before of their hopes for a crewed lunar mission, but the government document is the first to state the aim as a formal goal for the nation's space agency.

Details of the plan – which would see a human walk on the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972 – were published in a white paper that serves as a roadmap for the next five years of Chinese space exploration.

Think they'll do it?

 

[Cutlass]

They may make it. Waste of effort and money if they do, though. So have at it.

 

[TheLastOne36]

They may make it. Waste of effort and money if they do, though. So have at it.

Let them. Hopefully it inspires their public and raises demand to have further Chinese adventures in Space.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Tell me when they do something unprecedented in the history of spaceflight.

 

[GamezRule]

There's a reason we stopped going to the moon. There was absolutely no real value in it at all, just a drain on the economy. I'm all for China placing voluntary drains on their economy, though.

 

[amadeus]

Why cheer the Chinese wasting money?

 

[Cutlass]

Because I don't really like them all that much. And if they screw themselves badly enough, they may be forced to reform and allow more freedom to their people.

 

[Blue Emu]

Tell me when they do something unprecedented in the history of spaceflight.

... such as going to the Moon and then continuing their space program instead of abandoning it? That's never been done before... has it?

 

[bombshoo]

Oh! Looks like I'll be choosing Chinese communism over a Western style democracy.

 

[SouthernKing]

Saying that going to the Moon is a waste of money is akin to saying that going to the New World after ~1510 was a waste of money. The problem is that people are not thinking long-term enough. China seems to be the only country that has realized this so far.

 

[Cutlass]

Saying that going to the Moon is a waste of money is akin to saying that going to the New World after ~1510 was a waste of money. The problem is that people are not thinking long-term enough. China seems to be the only country that has realized this so far.

It's not that comparable. We're a couple of generations away from being able to live on the moon well enough to derive any benefit from it. And in the meantime there's nothing to be learned by going there that can't be learned by unmanned missions far cheaper.

 

[uppi]

Tell me when they do something unprecedented in the history of spaceflight.

If they manage to do this, they'd be in the best position to get on Mars first.

 

[Lillefix]

It's not that comparable. We're a couple of generations away from being able to live on the moon well enough to derive any benefit from it. And in the meantime there's nothing to be learned by going there that can't be learned by unmanned missions far cheaper.

Well, I don't think costs that much compared to other things. The current Nasa budget is around 17 billion dollars. That's a drop in the ocean. Europe and the US need to be more agressive in their space exploration. We need really sexy missions to make people interested, not just probes that measure what kind of rocks asteroids are made of. At this rate manned missions will just be pushed forward and forward in time and suddenly the year is 2100 and we haven't even reached Mars.

 

[Cutlass]

Well, I don't think costs that much compared to other things. The current Nasa budget is around 17 billion dollars. That's a drop in the ocean. Europe and the US need to be more agressive in their space exploration. We need really sexy missions to make people interested, not just probes that measure what kind of rocks asteroids are made of. At this rate manned missions will just be pushed forward and forward in time and suddenly the year is 2100 and we haven't even reached Mars.

I don't deny that the US underspends on science in all respects. But within what is spent, manned moon missions are an extremely poor choice of what to spend money on. There just isn't any more payoff in the foreseeable future.

 

[SouthernKing]

I don't deny that the US underspends on science in all respects. But within what is spent, manned moon missions are an extremely poor choice of what to spend money on. There just isn't any more payoff in the foreseeable future.

Economic benefits should not be the only factor taken into consideration here.

 

[Cutlass]

Economic benefits should not be the only factor taken into consideration here.

Scientific benefits as well. And there really aren't any.

 

[classical_hero]

So China is that far behind the US in Technology? Even Russia is more advanced.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Economic benefits should not be the only factor taken into consideration here.

What other possible reason would there be for going there? And if you say science, can't that just as easily, and hell, much more cheaply and efficiently be done with probes and robots rather than humans?

As for the OP, good on China, once they land they'll be officially 50 years behind us in SCIENCE! feats.

 

[uppi]

Economic benefits should not be the only factor taken into consideration here.

But what kind of benefits do you expect from going to the moon again? There needs to be some kind of benefit to justify spending money.

 

[Lillefix]

I don't deny that the US underspends on science in all respects. But within what is spent, manned moon missions are an extremely poor choice of what to spend money on. There just isn't any more payoff in the foreseeable future.

To be honest, I don't know about the payoff. But I do take some issues about the direction NASA is taking(or being pushed by politicians). The thing is that the longer they stop doing space mission, the more difficult it will be to take it up again. People die, they forget, they quit. And then suddenly after 15 years NASA have to invent the wheel again when they want to take up manned space missions again. The most valuable thing NASA have is the experience of their employees. the fact that they landed on the moon 40 years ago is probably almost useless today. It would have made more sense economically(which should not be the only consideration) to continue they moon mission to present day. We need to build up experience with manned space exploration. It doesn't just magically appear by sending up probes.